"To make things worse three days after he went to hospital the home alert company called at 4am asking if he'd tried to use the button."

Member for Dawson George Christensen said he was "distressed and disturbed" to hear of the second death.

"I am scheduled to meet with a Telstra representative next Tuesday and I have a long list of questions for them."

A Telstra spokesperson said the company did not want to release any further comments at this time.

The spokesperson previously said the extent and force of the Queensland floods caused "unprecedented damage" to a main fibre-optic cable and back-up cable 100km away.

ALARMS NEED TELSTRA

AN OZCARE spokesman has defended his company's lack of service for 24-hour Carelink Medical Alarms during the Telstra 000 breakdown on the Australia Day long weekend.

The spokesman said if Telstra failed, the home alert systems also failed.

"Those devices do rely on communication lines, absolutely, and when people are provided with them they do get provided with information on the need for Telstra lines to be up," he said.

The spokesman said Ozcare staff had spoken to Yvonne Smith, whose father died after attempting to use his alert button, when she returned his Carelink Medical Alarm and felt no need to make any further statements.

The company did not have statistics on how many people tried to use the alarms in Queensland during the Telstra communication breakdown or how many people use the alarms on average each day, he said.